Access and Download Youku Videos with Ease

As the most prevailing video sharing website in China, Youku is regarded as China’s YouTube. Like most mainstream video sites, Youku allows you to stream video clips without limits and you may also register for premium account to eliminate the ads and enjoy more privileges. Youku provides TV episodes, music videos, films, live shows and many other types of contents. And if you prefer, you may also upload your favorite videos to this platform without limit of length. Due to copyright issue, people who’re outside China may not access this website. Also, it’s impossible to download YouTube video for watching offline within the built-in settings. Therefore, this article will discuss the approaches for you to overcome these limits with ease.

Download YouKu on Windows/Mac

Before downloading videos from YouKu, if you need to access it at first, please go to this part for detailed instructions. And in this part, we will evaluate Video Downloader Pro that can help you grab these stuffs from web. This tool has both Windows and Mac versions for users. Not only does it works for Youku, YouTube and 1000+ other sites, it also lets you transfer downloaded video files to your iOS devices or other mobiles, giving you extreme user experience. Check the substantial features as follows:

>

To start with, you may download the program from above buttons and then install it properly on your computer. Once done, activate the program and you will see the interface as illustrated.

Now you can go to surf Youku videos (use the methods to unblock them on your browser if needed), and then hover your mouse on a video of the playback window, you will see a download icon instantly. Clicking on that icon will expand a list of different resolutions, so you just need to select one that’s suitable for your needs. Repeat this step to download as many clips as you hope and then resume to the program’s interface to check for download progress.

Once done with downloading these clips, you may navigate to “Downloaded” tab on left pane to check for local files. You may right-click on a clip and select “play” to view it right away or select “Open file location” to locate all files.

Also, if you prefer, you could go for the “Convert” option by clicking the related button, and then you can choose desired output formats from given list. There’re also pre-configured output formats for portable devices like iOS, Samsung mobiles, PSP, etc. Wait for conversion process completes and you will find the files available in “Converted” tab.

Within just a few clicks, you can easily get the video stuffs you want from Youku and other sites.

Download YouKu Videos Online

Despite the above solutions on downloading YouKu, you may also opt to a free online app to download videos, though this method works for 1 video at a time. This tool only requires a URL to download the video you like from YouKu, YouTube, Vimeo or other sites.

To start with using it, you just need to copy the URL of a video on YouKu, and then open a new tab to visit the link as given above. Having a quick glance at the tool, you will find it contains a URL field for you to paste the link, after doing so, you can click "Download" by the right-side to start downloading video. The app will then expand a list of media formats for you to choose from. Once a format is selected, you can right-click the smaller download icon besides this format and then click "Save link as" to preserve the clip in chosen format.

Alternative Online Downloader App

If you prefer, you may also visit this website which provides similar download service for YouKu. It also requires you to enter the URL of a video for downloading it. In this way, you may grab as many video clips as you need.

Below the URL field, there’re also several options for you to convert videos directly to desired media formats, including MOV, MP3, MKV, etc. You’re able to enjoy YouKu videos on many devices without limits.

Access Youku on Desktop outside China

If you’re to surf Youku on your browser, there’s nothing more convenient than installing a plugin on your browser to “unlock Youku”. Provided by UKU, "Unlock Youku" is a favorite extension for Chrome, so if you don’t have this browser on your computer yet, install it from the official site before you can access this extension. When you’re able to utilize Chrome, just visit this address on Chrome Store to install Unlock Youku. It provides you three modes to surf Youku and other video sites like TuDou, AIqiyi, etc. Just keep this extension active and you could view as many videos as you like on Youku seamlessly.

Access Youku on iOS outside China

Despite the plugin method which is not suitable for mobiles, the most common way to unblock Youku site is by using VPN. It helps you change your original IP to the one in China, so as to browse videos conveniently. In order to do so, go to the settings on your iPad or iPhone, and then forward to WiFi.

From here you could fill in the “Auto” field of HTTP Proxy with the one of the following addresses:

1. http://pac.uku.im/pac.pac

2. http://yo.uku.im/proxy.pac

3. http://pac.unblockcn.com

Once done, just press “renew lease” and confirm with Ok, that’s it.

Conclusion

In summary, we have discussed the eligible solutions to access Youku on your desktop and iOS devices outside China. And we have also reviewed some workable tools for you to download Youku videos for watching offline. Within such methods, you will find it much easier to surf and collect the videos on this platform. If you have better suggestions, feel free to share your ideas below. Also, if you want to learn about more video sites, check for the reviews here.

Trafalgar Law

Trafalgar has reviewed many software solutions in terms of multimedia, working efficiency, communication and more. He's keen to the strengths and weakness of each tool in evaluation. You could easily find out the best solutions for your needs in his articles regarding screencasts and video downloads.